Ephesians 5:The Lord Gave Husbands an Impossible Task in Marriage

Class Outline:

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A love painted in blood, not feeling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you’re in the resident congregation, turn off your electronic devices and put them away.  Let this be a place where you aren’t distracted by the world.

 

Welcome To

BARAH MINISTRIES

 

Rory Clark

Pastor-Teacher

 

Good Morning!

 

Welcome to Barah Ministries…an intimate, local Christian Church with a worldwide impact.  My name is Pastor Rory Clark.  Thanks for listening to this Bible lesson!

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

The Lord Gave Husbands an Impossible Task in Marriage

 

LESSON INTRODUCTION

 

The Lord’s command to husbands in Ephesians, Chapter 5, Verse 25 says…

 

EPHESIANS 5:25

Husbands…love your wives just as Christ also loved the Church…and gave Himself up as a substitute for her…

 

Yeah right!  C’mon Lord!  You know we can’t do that!  Give us something we can do!  Yet the Lord says in Luke, Chapter 1, Verse 37…

 

LUKE 1:37

Nothing will be impossible with God.

 

Oh…husbands…did you forget that part?  In today’s lesson we’ll investigate God’s wisdom directed to husbands in the most special relationship the Lord ever created…marriage.

 

OPENING SONG INTRODUCTION

 

Let’s hear some music!  How does the Lord think about each partner in the

marriage relationship?  June Murphy gives us an idea in her song I AM BEAUTIFUL.

 

MUSIC

OPENING SONG

Let’s Sing the Lord’s Praises

 

I AM BEAUTIFUL

June Murphy

 

OPENING PRAYER

 

Let us pray...

 

AlmightyGod and Father…thank you for sharing Your divine wisdom through the Word of God, which is Your absolute truth…Your perfect truth…

 

…as we conclude our study of the powerful marriage passage at the end of Ephesians, Chapter 5…share with us the wisdom You have for husbands…help the married men listening to this lesson to understand Your command to them, and help them realize that You put everything in place for their success in fulfilling this command, just like you did for wives…especially giving believers in Christ who are husbands the enabling power of the indwelling God…the Holy Spirit…whose divine power makes all impossibilities possible…

 

…we ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit…in Christ’s name...Amen.

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

The Lord Gave Husbands an Impossible Task in Marriage

 

LESSON PART ONE

 

We’re completing our study of the final passage of the apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians in Chapter 5.  The subject is marriage, and today we look at Verses 25 to 33, the Lord’s command to husbands.

 

As we study marriage, one thing immediately should be apparent.  God wants spouses to care for each other.  In God’s plan, each partner in a marriage has a separate and distinct role.  Each partner must learn his role to do his job

effectively.  Unfortunately, most of the learning comes from on-the-job-training.

The Lord gives us relationships like marriage as classrooms for learning to care for each other.

 

In the last lesson, we heard the Lord’s command to wives in the marriage relationship…Ephesians, Chapter 5, Verse 22…

 

EPHESIANS 5:22

Wives, be in submission to your own husbands, just as you are in submission to the Lord.

 

We learned the second part of this verse is much more important than the first…because the Lord is the One who ensures that wives have the power they need to fulfill His command.

 

Some people who teach about the Biblical view marriage consider teachingthis subject a “mine field.”  In an effort not to offend anyone, they miss the point that God didn’t make marriage a minefield.  God knows what He is doing.  When we allow Satan’s distortions to be louder than the Lord’s truth, the subject of marriage becomes a “mine field.”

 

To be sure, marriage is a challenging relationship.  The major challenge comes when people rush into marriage without taking sufficient time to vet the person they are considering.  As we learned last week, marriage involves submission and sacrifice and service.  Few who marry are ready for such a commitment.  Few who marry assess a partner's ability to deliver on such a sacrifice.

 

Let’s hear what the Lord wants for husbands in the marriage relationship using the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD translation of Ephesians, Chapter 5, Verses 25 to 33…

 

EPHESIANS 5:25

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himselfup for her…

 

EPHESIANS 5:26

…so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word…

EPHESIANS 5:27

…that He might present to Himself the Church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing…but that she would be holy and blameless.

 

EPHESIANS 5:28

So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself…

 

EPHESIANS 5:29

…for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church…

 

EPHESIANS 5:30

…because we are members of His body.

 

EPHESIANS 5:31

For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his

wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

 

EPHESIANS 5:32

This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.

 

EPHESIANS 5:33

Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.

 

Here’s the structure of the passage….

 

THE STRUCTURE OF THE PASSAGE

 

Verse 25

What the Lord Wants Husbands to Do

 

Verses 26 and 27

What the Lord Did for the Church…an Example

 

Verses 28 to 30

The Cure for Selfishness

 

THE STRUCTURE OF THE PASSAGE

 

The New Family

Verse 31

 

The Ultimate Unity

Verse 32

 

A Final Request to Wives

Verse 33

 

Now let’s study the passage verse-by-verse beginning at Ephesians, Chapter 5, Verse 25…

 

EPHESIANS 5:25

Husbands, love your wives unconditionally…just as Christ also loved the Church unconditionally…and gave Himself up as a sacrifice for her…

 

The Lord gave husbands an impossible task in marriage.  Love your wife UNconditionally?  Husbands will say, “Wait a minute!  I thought relationships are reciprocal…give and take…I give to her and I want her to give back to me.”  Think again!  What wife would want to submit to such a selfish view?

 

It’s the second part of the verse that makes what husbands have to do impossible.

 

Unconditional love is ONE WAY love.  Unconditional love is NO MATTER WHAT LOVE.  The Lord is saying to husbands, “When you are giving 100% and your wife is giving nothing…0%...love her.  And when you do and she is acting like a bigger “butthead,” love her more.  And when she is absolutely impossible, love her the most, JUST LIKE CHRIST loves all of His creatures…unconditionally.

 

No fair!  Said another way?  Philippians, Chapter 2, Verses 3 and 4…husbands…

 

PHILIPPIANS 2:3

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard your wives as more important than yourselves…

 

 

PHILIPPIANS 2:4

…and do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also look out for the interests of your wife.

 

Really Lord?  Wow!

 

The Lord placed husbands in an authority relationship in the marriage.  Wives are to submit to the husband's authority.  What is authority?

 

AUTHORITY

The legitimate, assigned power to give orders, to make decisions, and to enforce obedience, recognized as official and rightful by those in subjection to it.

 

When the Lord asks a wives to submit to their husband’s authority, He is asking wives to trust the leader He has put in place for them, AND to trust the leadership of the person wives choose to be their husband.

 

Unfortunately, human beings are imperfect…wives are imperfect…husbands are imperfect…not all wives want to submit, and not all husbands handle effectively the headship the Lord has given them.

 

In every relationship, someone leads and someone follows.  The one who follows is not inferior to the one who leads.  In fact, the one who follows may have a tougher job, especially if the leader is not very good at it.  I'm thinking of dancing, but this idea applies equally to leadership in any area.  We've all worked for leaders who abuse their leadership through incompetence.

 

Notice…the Lord places the husband in a position of authority with headship over the wife.  Then, when the Lord gives the husband a command, it has nothing to do with the husband’s authority.Ephesians, Chapter 5, Verse 25…

 

EPHESIANS 5:25

Husbands, love your wives unconditionally…just as Christ also loved the Church unconditionally…and gave Himself up as a sacrifice for her…

 

When we do things the way the Lord suggests, it is always the smart move.

 

God is commanding men to be selfless instead of selfish. Unconditional love is

sacrificial love.  Sacrificial love is other-focused love.

The Lord wants husbands to be other-focused toward wives even when, and especially when, she doesn’t deserve it.  When husbands comply with the Lord’s request, they are imitating the Lord.

 

After all, salvation is not something we deserve, but the Lord is willing to give it to us anyway.  His unconditional love is directed to us whether we do well or not.  Husbands…is this your mental approach to marriage?

 

Perhaps not.  For most of us, the truth is, “I love you as long as I’m fantasizing about what you are like.  When I find out what you’re really like…that you are human…then I ‘fall out of love’ with you.”  That’s conditional loveand it ruins marriages.

 

Husbands…Biblical love is unconditional love and it is impossible to do without the enabling power of God the Holy Spirit.  It’s not a love human beings can manufacture.  “Lighter fluid love” … “I’m in love with you” love … cannot sustain a marriage.

 

Why did the Lord give His sacrificial love to the Church?  Ephesians, Chapter 5, Verses 26 and 27…

 

EPHESIANS 5:26

…so that Christ might sanctify the Church…having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word of God…

 

EPHESIANS 5:27

…soHe might present to Himself the Church in all her glory…having no spot…or wrinkle…or any such thing…but that she would be holy and blameless.

 

What did the Lord do for the Church?  He cleaned up her act!  Can you hear the song O Happy Day in the background?

 

O HAPPY DAY

 

O Happy Day (O Happy Day)

O Happy Day (O Happy Day)

When Jesus Washed (When Jesus Washed)

When Jesus Washed (When Jesus Washed)

When Jesus Washed (When Jesus Washed)

He washed my sins away! (O Happy Day!)

 

Husbands…the Lord says your unconditional love for your wives makes them spotless, holy, blameless, and wrinkleless!  Think about all the money wives waste on wrinkle cream when all they need is a dollop of unconditional love to make them wrinkle-free!

 

The Lord’s cleansing of His bride made her spotless…His unconditional love has a cleansing effect.  Similarly, a husband's unconditional love has a cleansing impact on the home as well.

 

By the way…don’t be surprised when your kids gravitate to the parent who is trying to be their friend, whose philosophy is, “Let them be kids” … in the face of you teaching them what they need to learn to be effective adults.

 

If we are to assess what submission is for wives, we must assess what authority is for husbands.  In the Lord's plan, authority is submission, service, and sacrifice as He demonstrated when He washed His disciples' feet.

 

Submission to authority can sound harsh until it is considered outside the context of marriage.  For example, police have authority over citizens.  Think of the sacrifice made by police officers, putting their lives on the line every day for people they don't even know.  Police officers are killed on a routine traffic stops.  That’s sacrificial love, and what a sacrifice!

 

Husbands…the Lord expects you to put your life on the line every day for your wife.  And husbands say, "Yeah…but what about me?"  Isn't it great that the Lord didn't say that when He was being tortured as He went to the Cross to pay for the sins of all mankind?  He didn’t say, “Yeah, but”… he said “Let’s do it!”

 

Unconditional love is the cure for selfishness.  Ephesians, Chapter 5, Verses 28 to 30…

 

EPHESIANS 5:28

So…husbands ought to love their own wives unconditionally…just as they love their own bodies...unconditionally.  The husband who loves his own wife unconditionally loves himselfunconditionally…

 

 

EPHESIANS 5:29

…for no one ever hated his own flesh…instead, he nourishes and cherishes his own flesh just as Christ nourishes and cherishes the Church…

 

EPHESIANS 5:30

…because those who are part of the Church are members of Christ’s body.

 

Husbands must imitate the Lord, an impossible task without God the Holy Spirit’s help.  Just as a wife’s submission to her husband is impossible without God’s power, a husband’s unconditional love for his wife is impossible without the power of God the Holy Spirit.

 

When we return from the break, we’ll take the offering and then we’ll investigate the implications of a husband’s unconditional love in marriage.

 

FIVE-MINUTE BREAK

NOBODY

Casting Crowns

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

The Lord Gave Husbands an Impossible Task in Marriage

 

OFFERING INTRODUCTION

 

In Luke, Chapter 6, Verse 38 the Lord Jesus Christ says…

 

LUKE 6:38

“Give…and it will be given to you in return. They will pour into your lap a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.”

 

When you give, the Lord sees what you do and gives an abundance to you in return.  So be generous in giving because there is nothing better than experiencing the Lord’s generosity.

 

Don't let the enemy of God make you suspicious or reluctant to give.  He is robbing you of blessings.

 

Let’s welcome up Deacon Denny Goodall with one of his always inspiring messages about giving.

 

THE OFFERING

Deacon Denny Goodall

 

OFFERING VERSE

 

COLOSSIANS 2:10

…and in union with Jesus Christ you believers in Christ have been made complete…and Jesus Christ is the head over all rule and over all authority…

 

OFFERING SONG

THERE IS NONE LIKE YOU

Instrumental Version

 

TODAY’S BIBLE LESSON

The Lord Gave Husbands an Impossible Task in Marriage

 

LESSON PART TWO

 

Welcome back…Ephesians, Chapter 5, Verse 25…

 

EPHESIANS 5:25

Husbands, love your wives unconditionally…just as Christ also loved the Church unconditionally…and gave Himself up as a sacrifice for her…

 

What does this mean?  It’s a message to husbands…“It is not her fault.”  Unconditional love dissolves all the problems of a marriage…bad communication…blaming each other…hurting each other’s feelings…tearing each other apart…arguing…bickering…disagreeing…being implacable…self-absorption…nitpicking over wet towels on the floor and the toilet seat up or where a dish is placed…nagging (the ineffective use of repetition)…sarcasm…

contempt…and unkindness.

 

That’s quite a list.  Everything on the list can be eliminated with unconditional love.  That’s a tall order for husbands.  “Yeah, but you don’t understand…she…”. That’s what you’ll hear in marriage counseling sessions.  Then there is the Lord’s command…Ephesians, Chapter 5, Verse 25…

EPHESIANS 5:25

Husbands, love your wives unconditionally…just as Christ also loved the Church unconditionally…and gave Himself up as a sacrifice for her…

 

So, unconditional love is not reciprocal love.  All of us hope when we love that we will be loved back in equal proportion.  The true test of real love…unconditional love…is when you love unconditionally and you are NOT loved back.

 

For example, unbelievers don’t love the Lord even though He went to a Cross to die for them.

 

Believers in Christ get more enamored with their human view of what love is instead of learning what God thinks love is.  Husbands…real love…unconditional love…involves dying for your wife when she crucifies you.  This gains favor with the Lord, and He rewards it.

 

Ephesians, Chapter 5, Verse 31…

 

EPHESIANS 5:31

For this reason…marriage…a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to hiswife…and the two shall become one flesh.

 

Marriage is the creation of a new family.  Marriage is the creation of a new relationship.  The two are no longer two…they are one.  So husbands, when you are mad at your wife, who are you really mad at?  Yes!  Yourself!  Husbands… when you hurt your wife…who did you really hurt?  Yes!  Yourself!  Husbands…when you mistreat your wife, who are you really mistreating?  Yes!  Yourself!

 

Husbands…it’s important to provide an atmosphere in marriage where your wife wants both to trust you and to respond to you.  What will wives do when they see a husband’s unselfish, unconditional love for them?  They’ll respond, even if it seems they aren’t.

 

Husbands must die to self.  Self is the flesh in husbands encouraging them to be critical of wives and mad about what they are not getting.  Can you see the Lord doing that?  “I give them salvation and they don’t even talk to me in prayer!  I’ll show them!”By the way, wives don’t like being criticized, and few people enjoy it.

 

Luke, Chapter 9, Verse 23…

 

LUKE 9:23

Jesus was saying to all of His disciples who were with Him, “If, for the sake of

argument, anyone wishes to come after Me (to imitate Me)…he must deny

himself…and take up his cross daily…and follow Me.”

 

Husbands…taking up your cross means “starving self.”  Husbands who “starve self” put wife first.  Is football more important that your wife?When you see your wife has had enough of the kids, do you get the kids out of the house?  Don’t worry if it’s appreciated, because initially a wife may not know what to do with herself without the chaos.

 

When she’s been cooking all week, do you take her out to let her be served?  Do you help with the dishes?  Do you get housekeepers to clean the house every once in a while?  Do you have dinner together regularly to talk about things?

 

The Lord is asking husbands to be like Mighty Mouse…remember the cartoon?

“Here I come to save the day!”

 

Ephesians, Chapter 5, Verse 32…

 

EPHESIANS 5:32

This mystery of the unity created by unconditional love is great…but I (Paul) am speaking with reference to the unity of Christ and the church.

 

The enemy of God, Satan, wants to destroy unity…a unity which is the ultimate in concern for each other.  Satan wants us to be selfish and conceited and arrogant, putting concern for self above care for anyone else.  He wants us to manipulate others and to use others to our own ends.

 

But the Lord gives us commands and then He gives us the power to execute the commands.  We merely say yes to His will.

 

Believers in Christ are more than just responders to the flesh in us.  At the moment of salvation, believers in Christ get a new nature, empowered by the enablement of God the Holy Spirit.  The new nature and the old nature (the flesh) battle each other for control of the husband’s soul.  Galatians, Chapter 5, Verse 17…

 

GALATIANS 5:17a

For the flesh sets its desire against God the Holy Spirit…and God the Holy Spirit sets His desire against the flesh…for these two are in opposition to one another…

 

Unconditional love is First Corinthians 13 love...listen to verses 4 to 8…

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 13:4

Unconditional love is patient…unconditional love is kind and is not jealous… unconditional love does not brag and is not arrogant…

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 13:5

…unconditional love does not act unbecomingly…unconditional love does not seek its own (it’s not selfish)…unconditional love is not provoked…unconditional love does not take into account a wrong suffered…

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 13:6

…unconditional love does not rejoice in unrighteousness…but unconditional love rejoices with the truth…

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 13:7

… unconditional love bears all things…believes all things…hopes all things… endures all things.

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 13:8a

…unconditional love never fails…

 

Unconditional love is empowering and energizing, but it’s not easy.  In Matthew, Chapter 23, Verse 11 the Lord says…

 

MATTHEW 23:11

…the greatest among you shall be your servant.

 

In Matthew, Chapter 20, Verses 26 to 28 the Lord says…

 

MATTHEW 20:26

“It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant…”

 

 

MATTHEW 20:27

“…and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave…”

 

MATTHEW 20:28

“…just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

 

Ephesians, Chapter 5, Verse 25…

 

EPHESIANS 5:25

Husbands, love your wives unconditionally…just as Christ also loved the Church unconditionally…and gave Himself up as a sacrifice for her…

 

Wow!

 

Husbands…unconditional love is sacrificial love…and it creates an atmosphere… an environment where everyone can grow and thrive and flourish.  On a football team or in a business we call it creating a “culture” … husbands are charged with a responsibility from God to create a no-fault culture.

 

Wow!

 

Sacrificial love is nurturing.  A sacrificial environment allows love and respect to flow in a power feed power send relationship.

 

EPHESIANS 5:33

So every husband among you is to love his own wife unconditionally…even as the husband loves himself…unconditionally…and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.

 

God communicates love and respect in two commands…Ephesians, Chapter 5, Verse 22…

 

EPHESIANS 5:22

Wives, be in submission to your own husbands, just as you are in submission to the Lord.

 

Ephesians, Chapter 5, Verse 25…

 

EPHESIANS 5:25

Husbands, love your wives unconditionally…just as Christ also loved the Church unconditionally…and gave Himself up as a sacrifice for her…

 

A few thoughts about marriage to summarize our study of this passage…

 

To be in submission to someone or something is not natural.  It certainly is not something the rebellious flesh in us would want to do.  Women have a desire to take charge.  It’s not wise for a woman who is the Vice-President of the marriage relationship to want or to do the President’s job.  If you’re doing someone else’s job, it makes it tough to do your own job.

 

Human beings have a natural inclination toward disobedience because of the flesh resident in us.  Disobedience to these two simple commands ruins marriages.

 

God has an eternal plan, perfect provision, and secure protection for all believers.  He expects husbands to provide the same for wives through the enabling power of God the Holy Spirit.

 

Husbands…if your love is to be selfish…let it be selfish this way…love your wife selfishly like you love your own body…selfishly.  The two are one flesh.

 

Advice for both husband and wife…when you hurt your spouse you hurt yourself, so don’t do it.

 

Husbands…Peter says, in First Peter, Chapter 3, Verse 7 to “be considerate”… the Greek says “learn her” …

 

FIRST PETER 3:7

…husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way (consider her…learn her)…as with someone weaker, since she is a woman…and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that the prayers of both of you will not be hindered.

 

 

Husbands…don’t try to understand your wives…just love them unconditionally and enjoy them.

 

Husbands…wives want to know you care about them, you see them, you value them, you validate them, and you affirm them.  The great thing is this doesn’t cost money.

 

The unholy trinity is me, myself and I.  There is no "I" in team.

 

Wives…respect your husband…men don’t like being disrespected.

 

Don’t let tragedy teach you to consider what you love about the other person.

 

Finally, as believers in Christ we are married to Christ.  Revelation, Chapter 19, Verse 7…

 

REVELATION 19:7

“Let us believers in Christ rejoice and be glad and give the glory to the Lord Jesus Christ, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride (The Church) has made herself ready.”

 

At our baptism, we went to the Justice of the Peace for the baptism of God the Holy Spirit…in the future, as the Battle of Armageddon rages on the earth, the wedding feast of the groom with all it’s pageantry will be going on in heaven.

 

Christ is the bridegroom and we are His bride.

 

So married couples, obey the Lord’s commands for marriage and watch your marriage flourish.

 

Husbands…don't forget…one way love is entirely in your control and doesn't require her cooperation.

 

THE GOSPEL MESSAGE

The Good News of Jesus Christ’s Salvation Offer to the Human Race

 

The closing moments of this lesson could be the ten most important minutes of your life.  You’ll be introduced to the good news concerning how you can spend all eternity in heaven when you close your eyes in this life.  We want you to know that…

 

GOD WANTS YOU!

He Wants You to Make the Most Important Decision of Your Life

 

…and what He wants for you is that you make the most important decision of your life.

 

The Bible says God is clear-minded…First Corinthians, Chapter 14, Verse 33…

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 14:33

…for God is not a God of confusion…

 

It's true!  God is so clear-minded He works in ones.  There is one category of unbelieving angels, the fallen angels; and there is one category of believing angels, the elect angels.  Here's what the Lord has to say about the fallen angels in Jude, Chapter 1, Verse 6…

 

JUDE 1:6

And the fallen angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day…

 

Here’s what the Lord says about the elect angels.  Matthew, Chapter 24, Verse 31…

MATTHEW 24:31

And the Lord will send forth His elect angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect believers from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

 

The Lord categorizes His human creatures the same way, and elect and fallen.  The Lord wants you to be one of the elect!

 

The bad news is you were born fallen.  You were born physically alive but

spiritually dead as a fallen, ungodly, unrighteous unbeliever.  You were born a

sinner in God’s eyes, in desperate need of a Savior.

 

It’s not your fault you were born this way, but it is your circumstance.

 

In First Corinthians, Chapter 15, Verse 22, the Bible says…

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:22a

For all in union with Adam at physical birth (and that is every human being who comes to earth) are set to die the second death in the Lake of Fire…

 

The good news is that the Lord Jesus Christ knew you could not work your way out of this circumstance, so He decided to work everything out for you.

 

GOD WANTS YOU!

 

It’s a great thing to know, because no one gets out of this life alive.  What’s going to happen to you when you close your eyes in this life?  Will you go to heaven or will you go to hell?  Will you remain fallen or will you choose to be elect?

 

God doesn’t want you to go to hell!  Second Peter, Chapter 3, Verse 9 says…

 

SECOND PETER 3:9

The Lord is not slow about His promise of salvation, as some accuse Him of...instead, He is patient toward unbelievers…not wishing for any to perish (in the Lake of Fire) but for all to come to repentance (a voluntary change of mind about having a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ).

 

The Lord has a plan to make you one of the elect so He can welcome you to heaven!  So, how can you get to heaven?  RIGHT WHERE YOU SIT, RIGHT NOW, you can tell God the Father that you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is the moment of eternal life for you.  Acts, Chapter 16, Verse 31…

 

ACTS 16:31

“Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved by God, you and everyone in your household who also believes.”

 

The ONE WAY…the ONLY WAY to get to heaven is through believing in the Lord Jesus Christ…John, Chapter 14, Verse 6…

 

JOHN 14:6

Jesus said to the doubting apostle, Thomas, “I am the way (to salvation)… and I am the truth (through the Word of God)…and I am the resurrection life…and no one comes to God the Father (in heaven) but through believing in Me.”

 

Getting to heaven requires nothing of you except the expression of your faith in Jesus Christ to save you.  You can’t work your way to heaven.

 

Who is this God who saves you?  The apostle Paul describes the Lord Jesus Christ in First Corinthians, Chapter 15, Verses 3 and 4…

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:3

For I (Paul) delivered to you as of primary importance the gospel message I also received from God…that it was Jesus Christ who died for our sins according to the Old Testament Scriptures…

 

FIRST CORINTHIANS 15:4

…and that He was buried…and that He was raised from the dead on the third day…according to the Old Testament Scriptures…

 

Believing in Jesus Christ is your acknowledgment that you can’t do a thing

to be elect on your own.  You confirm that being fallen WILL NOT get you to heaven.  It's wiser to let God make you one of His elect, because once God does something, He never changes His mind!  John, Chapter 10, Verses 28 and 29 say…

 

JOHN 10:28

“…I (the Lord Jesus Christ) give eternal life to believers in Christ, and they will never perish…and no one will snatch them out of My hand.”

 

 

JOHN 10:29

My Father, who gives believers in Christ to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch elect believers in Christ out of God the Father’s hand.|

 

Acts, Chapter 4, Verse 12 says…

 

ACTS 4:12

“…there is salvation in no one else…for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved (except the name of the Lord Jesus Christ).”

 

What if you reject a relationship with Christ?  Matthew, Chapter 13, Verses 40 to 42 expresses the consequences…

 

MATTHEW 13:40

So just as weeds are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age.

 

MATTHEW 13:41

The Son of Man (Jesus Christ) will send forth His elect angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks (unbelievers)…and those who commit lawlessness (unbelievers)…

 

MATTHEW 13:42

…and the elect angels will throw (the fallen) unbelievers into the furnace of fire (The Lake ofFire)…and in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

 

Yes…there is a hell…and if you end up there it will be your choice.  So make the most important choice of your life!  Do what is suggested in John, Chapter 3, Verse 36…

 

JOHN 3:36

“He who believes in the Son has the resurrection life right at that moment…but he who does not obey the command to believe in the Son will not see the resurrection life…instead the wrath of God (the Lake of Fire) abides on him.”

 

Make the best decision for you!  Be an elect one, not a fallen one.

 

THE GOSPEL MESSAGE

The Good News of Jesus Christ’s Salvation Offer to the Human Race

 

CLOSING SONG INTRODUCTION

 

Let’s close with music!  How does the Lord think of you when it comes to unconditional love?  Let’s hear June Murphy sing about it in her song WHEN I SAY I LOVE YOU.

 

MUSIC

CLOSING SONG

Let’s Sing the Lord’s Praises

 

WHEN I SAY I LOVE YOU

June Murphy

 

CLOSING PRAYER

Let us pray...

 

Almighty God and Father…

 

…thank you for giving us direction for marriage…help us discard our pld ways of loving and show us how to use God the Holy Spirit’s power ot love Your way…

 

…we ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit…in Christ’s name...Amen.

 

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GOT BIBLICAL QUESTIONS OR WANT US TO PRAY FOR SOMEONE?

 

Send your request to pastor@barahministries.com

 

KEEP ON STUDYING THE WORD OF GOD DAILY!

 

Thanks for coming!

Thanks for watching!

Thanks for listening!

 

www.barahministries.com